Larch taiga of E Siberia; from the Arctic coast between the Lena and Kolyma Rivers southeastward onto the Kamchatka Peninsula, and southward through the Verkhoyansk and Cherskogo Mtns and the Omolon River to the upper Amur River basin and region east of Lake Baikal; also on islands in the New Siberian Arch. (Novosibirskiye Ostrova) (Chernyavskii et al., 1980, 1993; Federov, 1999a; Jarrell and Fredga, 1993:Fig. 2).

Status:

IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Comments:

Revised by Chernyavskii et al. (1980); additional chromosomal data analyzed by Gileva et al. (1984). The distinctiveness of L. amurensis has been reaffirmed by Chernyavskii et al. (1993), who studied karyotypes, craniodental traits, and pelage coloration and reported its range extension in the Kamchatka Peninsula. Fedorov et al. (1999b) similarly demonstrated its genetic isolation relative to L. trimucronatus and L. sibiricus based on mitochondrial DNA analyses. Their study highlights the biogeographic importance of the Lena-Kolyma catchment, with L. trimucronatus ranging east of the Kolyma River, L. sibiricus ranging to the west of the Lena River, and L. amurensis found in-between; discontinuities in mitochondrial DNA sequences among samples of Dicrostonyx are also localized in the region of the Kolyma and Lena Rivers (Federov, 1999; Federov et al., 1999a).

Includes chrysogaster, a form sometimes viewed as a species (e.g., Gileva et al., 1984; Gromov and Erbajeva, 1995). In identifying their Chukotskiy sample as the species chrysogaster, Gileva et al. (1984) inadvertently confused understanding of the taxonomy and ranges of these lemmings (see remarks under L. sibiricus and L. trimucronatus). The type locality of chrysogaster is Gichiga, a place near the west coast of the Okhotsk Sea (Ellerman and Morrison-Scott, 1951:656) and at the margin of the known range of L. amurensis, and we refer chrysogaster to that species. Pavlinov and Rossolimo (1987) retained, with reservation, chrysogaster in the synonymy of L. sibiricus, which then was thought to occur in the region as far as the Kamchatka Peninsula.